TO LAUNCH SPRING/SUMMER 2008 ISSUE
AT UALBANY WITH READINGS BY FOUR CONTRIBUTORS,

MAY 1, 2008

CALENDAR LISTING:
FENCE magazine will launch its Spring/Summer 2008 issue with readings by four contributors, including short story writer Vivian Heller, poet Karen Garthe, novelist Douglas A. Martin, and poet Michael Comstock on Thursday, May 1, 2008 at 8:00 p.m. in the Standish Room, Science Library, on the University at Albany’s uptown campus. The event is free and open to the public.

PROFILE
Contributors from the Spring/Summer 2008 issue of FENCE magazine will read from their poetry and fiction to celebrate the release of the new issue. Featured writers will include short story writer Vivian Heller, award-winning author of books on James Joyce and the New York City subway system; Douglas A. Martin, author of the novel “Outline of My Lover,” a London “Times Literary Supplement” International Book of the Year; Karen Garthe, winner of the Colorado Prize for Poetry for “Frayed Escort” (2006); and poet Michael Comstock, a recent University at Iowa Writers’ Workshop graduate.

Marking its 10th year of publication, FENCE is a biannual journal of poetry, fiction, criticism, and art. Widely respected, the journal is known for including writing from the “experimental” community along with the work of “mainstream” authors, and for juxtaposing the work of lesser known and/or unknown writers with some of the most well-known and respected writers of our time. Edited by National Poetry Series winning poet Rebecca Wolff, FENCE is published in partnership with the New York State Writers Institute at the University at Albany. The magazine’s fiction editor is UAlbany English professor Lynne Tillman, winner of a 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship.

Vivian Heller’s short stories have appeared in “BOMB” magazine and “Confrontation.” She is also the author of “James Joyce: Decadence and Emancipation” (1995), winner of the American Library Association’s Choice Award for Books of Outstanding Academic Merit, as well as “The City Beneath Us: Building the New York Subway” (2004), a volume published by the New York City Transit Museum to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the subway system. The Gotham Center for New York City History called the book, “engaging,” and said that it “will fascinate anyone who’s ever been amazed by the gigantic undertaking that is New York City transportation.” A professor of English literature, Heller has taught at The New School for Social Research, Bennington, Barnard, and Bard College.
Douglas A. Martin’s first novel, “Outline of My Lover” (2000), was selected by Colm Toibin as an International Book of the Year in the London “Times Literary Supplement” and has been adapted and staged by the Forsythe Company for their multimedia production “Kammer/Kammer.” Martin is also the author of “Branwell: A Novel of the Brontë Brother” (2005), and the short story collection, “They Change the Subject” (2005). “Publishers Weekly” called “Branwell,” “marvelous,” and said, “this mannered, tortuous life of Charlotte Brontë’s younger brother... offers a tender, tragic portrayal of a doomed artist and homosexual avant la lettre.” “Booklist” praised the “spiky, spare language” of Martin’s story collection and said, “appreciators of the short story will marvel at Martin’s dexterous use of it.” His most recent book is "In the Time of Assignments".

Karen Garthe’s first poetry collection, “Frayed Escort” (2006) received the 2005 Colorado Prize, selected by Cal Bedient, who said, “Evading every opportunity to be obvious and tedious, [Garthe’s] poetry somehow skips beyond even the need to be subtle: it is simply unimaginably imaginative at every point. The writing is at once lean and fantastic, crisp and mobile. All but exclusively, it exhibits, rather than thematizes, freedom—light-footed, dance-footed, sure-footed freedom.” Garthe has published poetry in numerous literary journals, including “Chicago Review,” “New American Writing,” “American Letters & Commentary,” “VOLT,” “Exquisite Corpse,” and “Columbia Poetry Review.”

Poet Michael Comstock is a 2006 graduate of the Iowa Writers Workshop. He has published previously in the literary journals “Diagram,” “Shampoo” and “Mustachioed.”